English: Soviet embassy in Nanking is being burned down by arson on January 1, 1938: The Soviet Union Embassy was burned down by suspicious fire around noon on January 1, 1938. The embassy was a center to expand communism movement of Soviet Union in China, and from the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, it was the place where Ambassador Bogomolov, Military Attache Repin, and such people desperately worked for the Soviet-China co-operation for Anti-Japan movement like
Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. After the fall of Nanking, it was said to have been used as a hide-out and a place for radio contact with Hangkow and others by a knot of Chinese government. There were various rumors on the suspicious fire. It seemed that Chinese government set fire to the building because they were displeased with the inaugural ceremony of Nanking Autonomous Commission of the day and trying to make the fire work to the disadvantage of the Autonomous Commission and Japan. A suspicious Chinese was arrested in Nanking on January 5 and interrogated. It was found that the arson was the act of Chinese stragglers.
日本語: 昭和13年元旦、放火により焼失するソビエト大使館: ソビエト大使館は正午近く、不審火により全焼した。この大使館はソ連の中国共産化の本拠地であり、日中戦争開始以来、ボゴモロフ大使、レーピン武官等がここを中心に活躍し
中ソ不可侵条約をはじめソ連・中国抗日合作に狂奔したところで中国側は日本軍に南京を占領された後もここに潜伏して漢口その他に無線連絡をしていたとも言われる抗日の牙城であった。この不審火はいろいろに噂されたが同日は偶然にも南京自治委員会の発会式もあり、これらを好まぬ中国側当局が放火して自治委員会ならびに日本側を不利に陥れようとする得意の悪業と思われ時節柄注目を呼んだ。かくてソ連大使館は全焼したが二日またもや同大使館構内の参事官官邸から発火しこれは大事にいたらず鎮火した。同官邸内にはその後も何者か潜伏した形勢もありわが方は不審火の正体を確かめんものと警官を派遣一方同館の保護にも当っていたところ五日南京市内で怪中国人を逮捕の上調べた結果はたして敗残兵の仕業であったことが判明した。